Tuesday, June 30, 2015

If the Harper government can't protect its websites how can Bill C-51 protect you?

Good Day Readers:

It's fair to say the hacker group Anonymous doesn't like the Harper government. For the second time in the past 24-hours it has again taken down the CSIS website for a total of three (Anonymous =3 The Spies =0). The Conservative Party of Canada's site was also blocked earlier today which begs the question, "What's next?"

Recall when Vic Toews was Public Safety Minister and he and then Justice Minister Rob Nicholson tried to ram the highly invasive Bills C-30 and 51 (not the anti-terrorist Bill that has so many Canadians ....ed off) that if passed would have provided for warrantless internet searches/monitoring of your e-mail and internet usage without the need to even inform you.

Well, Anonymous was so ....ed off with Mr. Toews it produced 6-highly embarrassing and critical YouTube videos that remain on the internet to this day.

A thoroughly choked Public Safety Minister Vic Toews trying unsuccessfully to find Anonymous.
Fast forward to today and now Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench "Justice" Toews should be given the title, "The Father of Anonymous the Harper Government Hacker." Will his greatest political legacy be he was instrumental in helping to bring down the Harper government even though he was no longer a part of it - at least not officially.

Bill C-51 is obviously going to be a major election campaign issue and, hopefully, will break the Tories' back come October.

Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk

CSIS website back online after cyberattack

CTV News.Staff
Tuesday, June 30, 2015

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service was up and running Tuesday afternoon, after a cyberattack took it down for the second time in 24 hours.

The main CSIS website and the CSIS Careers websites went offline shortly after 9 a.m. ET Tuesday. The Conservative Party of Canada's website also went down briefly Tuesday morning but was restored.

The website appeared to be back online and operational Tuesday afternoon.

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The website for CSIS, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, appears to have gone down again - less then 24 hours after a suspected rogue attacker disabled the site in a co-called denial of service attack.

The latest cyberattack happened less than 24 hours after a suspected rogue hacker took the site down in a so-called denial-of-service attack.

Sources tell CTV’s Mercedes Stephenson that the same rogue hacker who took down the CSIS website Monday night -- and who had previously launched attacks on municipal and police websites -- is behind Tuesday's outages.

"This particular hacker has access to the email system at the Department of Justice and has the ability – if this hacker chooses to do so – to start sending internal emails," Stephenson told CTV News Channel from Ottawa Tuesday.

"Sources tell me the hacker has been in the system for some time and just been dormant."

The denial-of-service the attacker has launched on the CSIS site is not technically a hack, but the attack prevents Internet users from accessing the site. Such attacks can be hard to stop because they can come from dozens or even hundreds of unique IP addresses.

Stephenson said sources tell her the hacker isn't attempting to steal information in these attacks. "This is all about trying to embarrass the government, intelligence agencies and the police," she said.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Jean-Christophe de Le Rue, said no personal information has been compromised in Tuesday's attack.

“This is another reminder of the serious security challenges and threats that we are facing. This is why we need strong laws like the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015 to address security threats facing Canada," he said in a statement to CTV News.

Stephenson says the hacker is trying to draw attention to the controversial Bill C-51, as well as the case of an Ottawa teen who was charged in an alleged "swatting" incident. The hacker believes the teen was framed.

The same hacker was previously connected to hacking group Anonymous, but appeared to be operating alone on Monday, sources said.

The person believed to be responsible tweeted out several messages about the CSIS website Monday, including: “I’m deciding if I should let CSIS back online and hit another government website, or if I should keep it offline for a while.”

Less than two weeks ago, several government websites -- including ServiceCanada.gc.ca and Parl.gc.ca -- were hit by a denial of service attack. Anonymous claimed responsibility.